Saturday, January 3, 2009

These are a vegan take on pork buns. I really don't associate yeast dough with Chinese cooking, and given my love of all things leavened, I thought it would be fun to try. If you aren't a big fan of tempeh, some shaved seitan. crumbled tofu, or pulsed chickpeas would work as well (I think--I did not try all these variations, but I don't see why they would not work).

INGREDIENTS

Dough

- 4 tbsp sugar

- 1/2 cup warm plain soy milk

- 1/3 cup warm water

- 2 tsp active dry yeast

- 2 to 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

- 1/4 tsp salt

Filling

- 12 dried shitake mushrooms

- 1 tbsp each canola and sesame oil

- 1 clove garlic, minced

- 1 tbsp minced ginger

- 1 pkg of tempeh, grated

- 3 tbsp orange juice

- 2 tbsp sherry

- 2 tbsp ketchup

- 1/4 cup hoisin sauce

- 2 tbsp vegan oyster sauce

- 1 tsp Chinese five spice

- splash of water

- 1 green onion, thinly sliced

- soy milk, for brushing

METHOD

1. Make the dough: Whisk sugar into warm soy milk and water, then whisk in yeast to dissolve. Set aside to proof. Add in enough flour to make a slightly tacky dough. Knead for 3-5 mins, until smooth. Place in a bowl, cover with damp towel, and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour.

2. While dough is rising, make the filling. Soak mushrooms in hot water until soft. Thinly slice.

3. Heat oils in a frying pan over medium heat. Saute mushrooms, garlic, and ginger for 3 mins. Increase heat to med-hi, then add grated tempeh and fry 5 mins. Add orange juice and sherry and stir well. Add ketchup, sauces, and five spice and stir well, adding a splash of water if needed. Stir in green onion and remove from heat.

4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

5. Remove dough from bowl and roll into a log. Divide into 12 sections. Keep covered with a damp towel. Take one section and roll into a 4-5 inch circle (with a rolling pin) on a lightly floured surface. Place 1/12 of the filling in the centre, then gather the edges over the filling, pinching the seams together and giving them a twist. Place seam side down on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough and filling. Cover with damp towel and let rise for 30 mins.

6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush each bun with soy milk and bake for 18-10 mins, or until golden brown.

MMmmm. These look delicious. I wonder if you steam these if they will be like the tasty little buns you get for dim sum. I absolutely love those even though half the time I have no idea what the filling is.

I have baguette pans, but have only used them once. They are perforated with very small holes and the dough stuck and was impossible to clean (even though it is a non-stick pan)! Do you have any advice to fix this?

I wasn't sure whether or not to bake the baguettes in the forms or not. I have the same forms you do--non-stick metal with holes. I like to bake my baguettes straight in a baking stone, so I just used to forms for letting the dough rise. It was a bit tricky getting the dough out, but not impossible. I think next time I will place a floured linen towel in the forms, or maybe dust the forms with flour, and then bake on the stone as per usual.

I used to eat veg "pork dumplings" at the Kingdom of Vegetarian restaurant in Philadelphia. Denver doesn't have a veggie dim sum place (that I know of), so I've been having to do without - but I'm excited to know that I can make my own!

These were very yummy! My husband and I loved these but my 2 1/2 year old only ate the bun part, but the next day when we reheated the leftover buns she ate the whole thing. I'll have to try the chickpeas with her.

I couldn't find any vegan oyster sauce. I could only find garlic hoisin sauce and I didn't use the mushrooms since they were pricey and since hubby doesn't like them that much anyways I just left them out but he definelty wants me to make them again!

Ever since becoming a vegan last year, I've often turned to your blog for recipes and recipes ideas (being that your recipes are some of the only vegan recipes that can: satisfy my meat loving, omni hubby, feed my entire family ), and be made on a semi regular basis without breaking the bank.

As a rule, I don't comment on food blogs (As a stay at home, vegan, cook everything from scratch, over ambitious mother, I barely have time to scratch down the recipes before a flurry of activity overwhelms me.) But for this recipe I had pause for a moment to express my gratitude.

My 18 month old twin girls have their eyeteeth coming in, which as a dad yourself, you probably remember sucks.

Suddenly all food (except for bananas, toast, and cereal) is cause for tears and attempted dives from highchairs. Every meal I work so hard on ends up either on the floor and as leftovers in the fridge(that wastefully, never get eaten). The last 3 nights have been super bad, with my daughters absolutely refusing to eat anything, and then becoming overwhelmingly upset out of hunger. The frustration has had me in tears on several occasions, and has created a bit of a rift in the relationship with my daughters.

Today I tried this recipe, not wanting to pick of the remains of rice, quinoa, bulgur, couscous, or whatever else ended up the floor. At least buns would end up in fewer pieces...

NOTHING hit the floor.

My teething, picky twins polished off 3 each! As a result, they were well behaved for the rest of the night, and we were even able to do a craft together with NO tantrums.

Sorry if it sounds like gushing, but I'm not kidding when I say that this recipe SAVED my families unity, and my sanity.

So thank you, thank you!

(On a related note I want to make up a bunch of these and freeze them- how well do you think they'd freeze? and what suggestions could you use for substitutes (or fillers) for the mushrooms? Dried shiitakes cost 40$ a pound at my co-op, and as I would like to make this a new family staple recipe.)